In a hectic world, millions of Americans enjoy the pastime of watching football on the weekends. It is a nice distraction from the pressures of everyday life. Unfortunately, it is becoming more difficult to just enjoy a game any longer as, sadly, politics has entered the world of sports in a big way. This season, NFL players are continuing to protest police brutality and racial discrimination by sitting, knelling or giving a “black power” salute during the National Anthem. This has infuriated patriotic Americans who view these protests as disrespectful toward their country. It is no doubt a contributing factor toward the declining ratings of the NFL this season.

As ratings have declined, one television network that is particularly suffering is ESPN. In the heyday of cable television, ESPN was considered one of the star networks. It featured great sports programming, compelling hosts and powerful interviews with athletes.

Unfortunately, in recent years, the network has turned away from strictly sports programming and allowed hosts to express their liberal political views. Not surprisingly, millions of Americans are “cutting the cord.”

While conservative sports commentators, like former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, were fired for expressing their political views on social media, liberal hosts are allowed to make almost any type of comment. For example, this week, host Jemele Hill launched a nasty Twitter tirade against President Trump labelling him a “white supremacist,” an “idiot,” and a “moron.” For good measure, she also claimed that his cabinet members were racists as well.

After an outcry, the network met with Hill and released a weak statement calling her comments “inappropriate.” She was not suspended, fired or even censured. In fact, Hill did not even apologize for her outrageous and inaccurate comments. In a statement Hill only expressed “regret” that her comments “painted ESPN in an unfair light.”

This did not please President Trump who tweeted that ESPN was “paying a really big price” for their liberal political views. He also noted that customers were “dumping” the network in massive numbers. Finally, the President demanded that the network “apologize” for the “untruth” of calling him a white supremacist.

This criticism fell on deaf ears at ESPN, which did nothing. Hill continues to host her show and the network’s liberal bias will not be changing anytime soon. As a result, it is time for more Americans to boycott the network. If people want political commentary, there are much better networks to watch than ESPN. While those looking for strictly sports programming will have to switch channels as well.

The ESPN of today is a poor imitation of the network that was a cable television trailblazer. Sadly, it turned to politics and decided it did not want viewers with different views watching the network. In reality, none of this political discussion should not even be associated with ESPN. The network should only be focused on sports and until it gets back to its core mission, the reason for its existence in the first place, viewers should stay away.

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Jeff Crouere is a native New Orleanian and his award winning program, Ringside Politics,” airs locally at 7:30 p.m. Fridays and at 10:00 p.m. Sundays on PBS affiliate WLAE-TV, Channel 32, and from 7-11 a.m.weekdays on WGSO 990-AM & www.Wgso.com. He is a political columnist, the author of America's Last Chance and provides regular commentaries on the Jeff Crouere YouTube channel and on www.JeffCrouere.com. For more information, email him at [email protected]